Near the end of Friday’s Girls Rock NC showcase at Local 506 in Chapel Hill, founder Amelia Shull took the microphone while the final band set up. She addressed the packed room – the rock club crowded with families, for once – and painted a hopeful picture of a future woman president counting Girls Rock as an early inspiration. She gave most of her attention, though, to the campers: the 7-10-year-old girls she hoped would take the lessons they’d learned in their week at Girls Rock and, moving forward, apply rock star confidence to their lives in general.
“Hey, girls,” she shouted from the stage. “What’s your instrument?”
“It’s my voice,” they replied.
After, Shull sat at the merch table with this session’s organizer, Girls Rock NC staff member Hannah Shaw. With bedtime looming (the showcase ended around 7:30pm, and the girls’ ages range from 7-10), most of the campers were gone by now, but occasionally one would stop to hug and thank them.
“Most of them have never, ever, ever played an instrument before this week. We put them in their hands and they rock out,” says Shaw. The bands form the Monday of the weeklong session, she says, and then learn how to communicate in a collaborative environment. This turns into bands like 5 Rockin’ Mustaches, Sneaky Rock Fox, Rainbow Punx, Rainbow Fire Fluffy Pigs, Star Wars, Vacca Regine, Contagious and The Shooting Stars – each with distinct approaches to rock, ranging from punk to prog, even.
“The girls do all the work, and they’re amazing,” says Shull. During the showcase, the campers were obviously having fun – wearing cowgirl hats or hair dye and occasionally finishing songs by yelling “freak out!” and then doing so. Yet lessons in collaboration and communication appeared to have paid off as, more than once, band members successfully gave each other non-verbal cues to move on to the next part of a song.
There are more showcases upcoming – one July 20 at the Cat’s Cradle and one at King’s in Raleigh on the 26th – and Shull is particularly excited that Girls Rock NC will receive 5% of Durham Whole Foods’ net sales Tuesday the 16th. “So everyone should go to Whole Foods for their groceries for the whole month that day,” she says with a smile.